There are several sides to every story
by Naphtaline
Summary: Carmilla sighed and some dark strand of hair graciously flew away from her face "It's funny how you insist on calling me a monster, a murderer, when all you've been doing is torture me and kill people. Stop acting like a bloody virgin, you're the only monster in here." AU
1. Chapter 1

A/N : Hey. So, I'm a student in Med school with a sleeping problem. Basically, Mr. Sandman hates me. So, I have grow this weird habit of tiring myself to sleep by writing a couple of words before I close my eyes. And since I read an article about Carmilla's fandom the other day on buzzfeed, I re-binge watched the whole thing and it inspired me some kind of plot. It's a Hollstein fanfiction because I identify as a Carmilla person with her Laura moments so I wasn't feeling like writing from Perry's point of view. So yeah, anyway, I thought some of you might like it.

* * *

CHAPTER 1 : [INSERT ADJECTIVE HERE] Danny

On a night of winter 1998, as 8 years old Laura Hollis woke up in the middle of night, she felt a sudden urge to pee.

Heavily yawning, she got up on her tiny feet and left her pastel bedroom for the darkness of the corridor. Everything seemed to be shadow at this moment, but the kid, mind still wrapped around her dreams, kept walking down the hallway.

Until her eyes fell on the figure of a giant cat, and she stopped.

"I'm sorry." the cat whispered, as blood dripped from its mouth.

Laura's chocolate eyes fell on her mom's dead body and the cat disappeared.

* * *

As a young girl, Laura's dream had always been becoming a famous journalist. But hey, things never work out the way you'd expected when you grow up. And, Laura did, grew up. And she grew up full of motivation. Because that's what happens when you're made out of optimistic material.

So, giving up on her bright future as a TV-presenter, Laura had chosen to study science, more precisely, vampire science. She had entered the most prestigious school in the country, and using her hard-working nature, she had done her best to stay on top of her class.

Until the letter came.

Honestly, Laura would have never thought she'd be this happy to receive a letter that wasn't from Hogwarts. Yet, she had been. Because being invited to work inside a top-secret lab searching for a way to kill vampire ? Perfect as Laura had felt like a witch about to work on a way to eradicate a whole bunch of deatheater. Except she was kind of a wandless witch. Oh wait, did that made her the female equivalent of Snape the potion master ? Well she certainly was skilled at vial-manipulation.

So Laura had packed her things and accepted the job. The next morning, she had gone in a private governmental jet that had landed in front of a giant building. Laura had jumped out of the plane with excitement, her dark blonde hair following in a gracious manner, and she had run toward the building, amazed as she had realized how glorious it looked.

Since the discovery of Vampire existence, every country in the world had built a policy in order to counter the threat they represented. Special forces had started patrolling streets and some vampire had landed in special prisons. And, eventually, realizing that what book told about how to kill a vampire didn't work, Labs like this one had been built, and researchers hired.

It had been a month now, and Laura had already met the whole scientific staff, easily becoming friend with most of it because of the fact that they were very few of them. Five little geniuses, or hard-working people, that had been selected by the government itself.

The first person Laura had met had been a person called LaFontaine. A red headed stylish scientist that always seemed to work on ten things at the same time. Laura had immediately liked her because how couldn't she have ?

Then, Mattie had come. A gorgeous woman with charcoal eyes and dark skin that had seemed a bit harsh at first, but as Laura had digged deeper, she had realized that the woman was actually nice behind her mask of irony and down-to-earth comments.

There was also J.P an energetic researcher who was also LF bff. Nice guy, very polite.

And Danny. Tall fit Danny.

Beautiful tall fit Danny.

Sculptural beautiful tall fit Danny.

Laura softly sighed, a dreamy look on her face as she stared at the nothingness. Until a high-pitched voice woke her up.

"Miss Hollis," Perry Dean said in the sharpest of tones "Why exactly are you drooling instead of doing your job ?"

Laura's eyes opened wide at the statement, and quickly, she wiped away any trace of daydream evidence left on her chin. Mrs Dean threw her a disgusted look. God, this woman was terrifying. Laura felt shame color her cheeks and she made an appological face. "Errr... Sorry."

Dean sighed with disdain and put both hands on her hips. With her flawless suit and high heels, she surely looked powerful.

And she was.

Being the boss, Dean had every right to fire anyone with a flick of the hand and a sadistic "bye bye.". Creepy woman with gorgeous looks. No wonder why LF had a crush on her, Laura probably would have too if the mere presence of her boss didn't cause heavy fear-sweating problem.

"You wanted to know something ?" Laura asked in an unsteady pitch as she bit her lips, suddenly feeling self-conscious.

"Actually," the dean said while sitting on the desk and crossing her legs in the most elegant of manners, "I wanted to inform you that there will be a vampire transfer this afternoon." Then grey eyes wandered on the desk and ignoring the vials, posed on Laura's junk food. Dean made a face, Laura too. "An old one. I'd like you to try it on this one. If it dies like the rest did, then perhaps we could find a way to turn the poison into a weapon and eradicate the leech from our society.". Dean then intensely looked inside Laura's eyes and added, "I count on you, Miss Hollis" before grabbing the junk food and leaving.

Laura didn't even protest when her boss stole her dinner, only sighing. "I guess I'll have to bring lettuce next time." Then her gase went back on the male vampire's body in his plexiglass cell and seeing him dead, she felt a bit better. Not that she was a sadist, but Laura had strong notions of good and bad. And, killing evil creature in order to bring peace ? Well that was only a means to an end.

Tying her hair into a high ponytail, she grabbed her half-drank cocoa cup and left room 67 for the white corridor that linked every room of the lab. It was almost 20 p.m now, which meant that the staff member were supposed to meet in the co-working room and exchange the info they had gathered today. Not much for Laura herself since the vampire she had been in charge of had spent his whole day rolling all over the floor, trying to fight against the poison, before eventually dying like the rest had.

Laura was confident that the poison they had synthetized was a major discovery. Being released in a gaseous form, the poison could be used without the need to approach the subject, which would prevent some death. Well, not all, since the recipe wasn't perfect and gas couldn't be used in the battlefield. But hey, since most of the captured vampire were now roting inside special prisons, it would be perfect to make more room. Besides, they had time to work on a way to transform it into a weapon.

Laura started happily humming as she walked down the hallway. Eventually entering what LF had named "the Headquarter" because this room was the only one containing a fridge which was actually meant for food.

"Hey Danny !" Laura greeted as soon as she saw her, "how was your day ?"

Danny, her tall fit self resting against the wall, waved in her direction. "The usual. Subject 23 is dead and Dean stole my sandwich because she said peanut butter wasn't healthy." she sighed.

Laura laughed, "Yeah, sounds like any other day." then, taking an apple from the fruit basket, she bit in it while still looking toward the red head. _Breath_ , she thought, because she needed to act like a cool person. There was no reason Danny would want to hang out with herself otherwise.

So Laura tried to be a bit mysterious, imitating Danny's pose as she tried to lean on the wall as well.

She stumbled and fell.

"Ouch !" she said as her bum crashed on the cold floor. Geez, this wasn't cool at all.

But Danny automatically ran toward her and, being her charming-self, tried to help her to get back on her feet. Laura giggled as she felt stupid and yet extremely happy.

 _I should try and trip over myself more often._ She thought.

"Are we interrupting something ?" Mattie asked as she entered the room, closely followed by JP and LaFontaine. Laura's cheeks reddened but she said nothing, pleased because Danny hadn't let go of her hand.

* * *

Hey, if you managed to reach the bottom of this page without ripping your eyes off, then thank you. You might be wondering why I'm saying this (or is it obvious ?), but the fact is, I'm French. Yep, that's why writing this is tiring, and basically why it works. So you probably stumbled across some homophone/grammatical mistakes such as "did wanted" or "throw/through/though" because to me it sounds the same or it sound better (even when it's not). Anyway my brain is a mess and I learnt english by listening to it so it's harder for me to write it down. I re-read the whole thing several times though but I'm probably blind to a creeping amount of mistakes.

A bit short uh ? Yeah, I know, the first chapter is short but I already wrote 5 of them. I think this will be around 10 chapters and 30 000 words and I don't know when I'll have the time to update, but I will. I mean, I write every night anyway. Some chapters will be longer than other, I just close one when I think it's done. And yeah, Carmilla appears in chapter 2 and you might want to start grabbing kleenex for chapter 3 because drama-alert and the following chapters too. Yeah, u know what ? Grab the box

Anyway thanks for reading and uh.. have a nice day ?


	2. Chapter 2

A big thank you to the guest who took the time to write a review, it means a lot since I have absolutely no idea of whether or not what i'm posting makes sense. Well, anyway, here's chapter 2, I hope you like it.

* * *

CHAPITRE 2 : HANGOVER GAMES

You know how some days you wakes up and you feel like you were just hit by a bus ? Well, that's how Laura felt at this moment.

Because they had found them laughing at a Utube video instead of doing their recap of the day, Dean had decided to block the lab exit until 22p.m the night before. And Laura, who wasn't used to such extreme hours, hadn't resisted it. Of course, the Gin Shoot contest LaF had forced her to participe to hadn't helped either. Well, it was actually her own fault, because when Danny had asked too, Laura hadn't hesitated to agree on any shoot of any alcohol the tall red-head had poured.

Who would have thought tall fit Danny could drink so much ? What was she ? A black hole ?

Thank god, Laura had blacked out because this way, she didn't remember any of the embarrassing things she might have said. The only thing she could focus on now, was getting out of the bed without tripping over herself or vomiting on her sheets.

Geez, this was hard.

"I can't believe I slept with my shoes on !" Laura winced before heading to her bathroom.

* * *

It seemed that all the hangover's syndromes had started a contest of which-is-the-best-at-making-you-life-crap. Hopefully everyone -except for the ever-classy Mattie- had chosen to wear dark glasses. Better turn the lab into a men-in-black cosplay morning rather than looking like crap. Who had decided that neon was the fashionable way to light room these days anyway ?

"Too much light. I can't even think." said LaFontaine, while dangerously pouring acid inside a vial.

It was testing Thursday for Laura, and so, like every Thursday morning, she found herself manipulating dangerous product that could kill them all, while watching Adventure Time with LaF.

"I love this show." Laura said in a hazy manner. "But Finn's voice today ? Terrible."

"I know right ?" LF said, "I can't begin to imagine what would Perry do if she found us right know"

"You know you really shouldn't call her that." Said Laura, waving her disagreement in slow motion. "She doesn't like it and when she doesn't like something, she decides to ruin our lives."

LaF frowned. "Yeah I know." but you could clearly see on their face that they were feeling sad about it. "You know Dean and I used to be friends."

Laura almost dropped her solution on her floor. "What ?"

"Yeah. You know how she looks young and all ? That's normal, we're the same age"

Laura's eyes opened wide in disbelief. "What ?" she said again because the boss being their age ? It seemed so impossible. She was just so... Classy and so... frightening and... well it wasn't possible to give her an age anyway, but Laura would have never guessed that she was only 25.

"Yeah, she used to be very nice. A bit authoritative though. But you know how when the government agreed on the vampire-eradication project, they were vampire raid on towns ? Perry's whole family died this way. Perry was 12 and she had a complete breakdown. She moved out of town to live with an aunt and I never saw her again."

"Until now ?"

"Yeah."

Laura rubbed her chin, but said nothing. Her who thought LaF had a crush on Dean, felt a bit stupid now.

The rest of the morning pasted in a blur and routine taking over, Laura started feeling better around 12 a.m. Though food seemed still the most disgusting thing on earth, the tiny scientist forced herself to taste one of Dean's brownie, afraid that if she didn't, she would be fired. Then, after the strict planning of the day, Laura grabbed her how-to-kill-vampire kit and left the Headquarter for room 69, where she was supposed to test the poisonous gas on the old vampire Dean had told her about the previous day.

When she entered the room, Laura froze."Jesus, we drank there too last night ?!" she exclaimed, as her gaze fell on the mess left on the once spotless room. Bottles and broken glass were scattered all around the place, some of the paper left on the desk had been completely ripped apart or reduced to nothing as alcool had left it's trace. Even the comfy desk chair was lying on the floor, a few feet from it's usual position. "If Dean sees this I'm going to lose my job."

A growl answered her.

Laura turned her face toward the source of the noice.

Brown eyes met black ones.

The female vampire in the plexiglas cell was nothing like any other ones that had been brought inside the Lab. Instead of the scary gaunt face and grey skin caused by month of blood starvation and captivity, this one looked impressively normal. Human, almost. Black hair graciously framing pointed features, dark thin lips pursed together in a fine line, jet-black iris, black leather jacket, black leather pants, and -Seriously ?- black leather boots too ?!

The vampire female subject looked like a pretty advert for SM company or a rebellious teenager. Laura rolled her eyes at the sight and started cleaning the room, not paying anymore attention to the leech.

"You're ignoring me aren't you ?" the subject said in a purr, and Laura surprisinly looked back at her. God, this was a uncommon voice.

"Well no." she answered, "I'm just cleaning. Besides there's no point in acknowledging you anyway since I'm going to poison you to death in a couple minutes."

The vampire smirked "Yeah you said that too last night."

"Last night ?" Laura casually replied, putting the remains of a bottle under the desk, hiding it behind the bin. "What do you mean ? I've never seen you before."

Vampire eyebrow rose and if it hadn't been vampire's, Laura would have asked for shaping advice. "You mean you were so drunk you don't even remember ?"

"Remember what ?"

"You flirted with me, then accused me of murder, then threaten my life."

"What ?" Laura said, dumbfounded.

"Are you retarded or something, creampuff ?" The vampire sighed. "You were so drunk that you didn't realised I was in a cage and tried to kiss me. Then kissed the glass. Then got mad when you realized who I was. Then your friends came here and prevented you from entering on my side because they were afraid I'd eat you. Well, I can't blame them for this, I'd probably have. I mean, look at this neck. So... appealing."

"Oh so, that's why there's lipstick on the glass... Wait, Flirting ? Eating ?!" Laura's eyes googled, "I'm never drinking again."

"Kitten, believe me, that would be marvelous."

Laura sighed as she grabbed the gas bottle of poison. "Well, whatever your vampire name is, it was nice meeting you." she said in a sarcastic tone, obviously not thinking it. Honnestly, all her mind could focus on was the fact that she had been drunk and had apparently chosen to flirt with the demon. Well, that was embarrassing. Sighing again, she carried the bottle toward the sign that said 'insert toxic here' and put it in the emplacement. Hearing the familiar clic, she smiled with satisfaction.

"Wait, what are you doing ?" the vampire female said.

Laura turned back toward her. "Killing you, obviously." then she rolled her eyes.

"What ?!" the vampire exclaimed, "You're not serious right ?"

"I am _deadly_ serious" Laura replied while internally congratulating herself because seriously ? This awesome answer? Then, as she hit the 'release button', she watched the vampire self-assurance fell to ashes as it took its first poisonous breath. And that felt like eating popcorn while watching a love movie : delicious.

Laura walked back toward the desk and sat on the chair, taking some clean paper out of the drawer in order to take notes and then hit the chronometer. How many seconds before the vampire's death this time ?

Hours.

Hours watching the vampire's pretty face torn with pain and convulse on the floor. And Laura had to watch it all, not allowed to tear her eyes away from this deadly dance. Each time it was the same, she had to observe the efficiency of the mixture. The effect on the vampire. The best effect being quick death. The worst ? Painful agony.

But this one didn't seem like dying. Not at all. Crawled in a ball and heavily breathing its toxic air, it seemed able to survive it. It's pale skin tone never turning lighter, never giving up on life. Its black iris, pools of darkness, staring straight inside Laura's.

 _It's weird, how human it looks._ Laura thought. But she knew it wasn't real. Vampire weren't human, they were cruel monsters ready to kill your loved ones. Every clever person knew that.

And yet.

There was something that seemed alive in those black iris. Beyond hatred or hunger. Something Laura couldn't put a finger on.

"Hey Laura." called a voice in her back, and turning around, Laura posed her gaze on LaFontaine's stylish figure. They smiled at her and took a seat. "How are you doing ?"

Laura shrugged, "weeeeeeell, the headache is almost gone."

"Last night was weird. You know how you wanted to hug the Carmilla subject while you were too drunk to realize that she was on the other side of the glass ? Oh, is that your lipstick on it by the way ?"

Laura made a face. "Carmilla ? Is that the vampire's name ?"

A growl from the glass cage answered and she raven-haired vampire tried to pick itself up, but miserably failed as it crashed back on the floor.

"Still alive uh ?" LaF asked, as their pale eyes fell on the small figure of the subject. "How many did you gave it ?"

"What was written on today's agenda. The full lethal bottle."

LaF's eyes googled. "Wow. This one is strong. No other vampire resisted it. I can't wait to see its insides."

"Well I guess that's why the Boss warned us about her being extra-old. If we manage to kill this one with the poison, then we will be able to change it into something more... suitable for the army. And you'll have a extra old corpse to study."

"Sounds like a christmas morning to me."

* * *

My favourite scene of Carmilla is when Perry lost her shit while screaming "BE NORMAL" because this was such an amazing performance. What's yours ?


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3 : Of monsters and women

And so, weeks had pasted. Months. And as Carmilla's skin tone had slowly faded and turned grey, Laura had started questioning herself.

It was torture.

This was obvious that spending day testing products on Carmilla, only to give her a cup of blood in order to keep her conscious enough to evaluate the effect of the poison was torture.

The worst part was, Laura wasn't even enjoying it anymore. She had stopped at one point, because the screams coming out of this glass cell ? Those were loud enough to break any belief. Coming out of Carmilla's pale lips as she begged the scientist not to do it this time. Throwing every bit of her pride out of the window as genuine fear painted on her face.

 _Is there a heart, here, somewhere, or is this just acting_ ? Laura wondered as she sat at the desk facing the glass cell. She watched as Carmilla's sleeping figure frown in her sleep and thought about all the Vampires she had killed in order to be sure that the poison was working. Only to be faced with resistance at the last moment.

No, it was for the greater good. Laura tried to remember. Plus, this was not a person. This was a monster and torturing it was only justice. This way no more little girl would lose their moms to theses monsters. They had to fix the poison.

"You're such a hypocrite." Carmilla said, from behind the glass. She was still lying on the floor, her dark locks falling around her face. But there was no trace of tiredness left on her face.

"I'm not." Laura countered, frowning. _How long had she been awake ?_

"Yes you are. I can practically hear your thoughts. You're trying to justify everything you're doing when you could just end it."

"End it ?" Laura asked. "You mean letting you go ? We need to find a way to protect human, I have to kill you. Besides, you're a murderer, you'd kill me if I let you out."

Carmilla sighed and some dark strand of hair graciously flew away from her face "It's funny how you insist on calling me a monster, a murderer, when all you've been doing is torture me and kill people. Stop acting like a bloody virgin, you're the only monster in here.".

"I'm not killing people, I'm killing monsters. This doesn't make me one !" exclaimed Laura as she stood from her chair and started walking toward the glass cell.

"What are you then ? A knight in a shiny armour ? A savior ? A saint ?" Carmilla spat. And her tone, cold as ice, felt like a punch in the guts. The worst part was that she wasn't even standing. She was still lying on the floor, managing to be sharp as a knife while drained out of all strength. " You're nothing. You're just a fanatic like every other human."

"No, It's not true !" Laura protested, " I... I just wanted to help by-"

"By torturing people ? Well congrats then. You're exactly this freak you wanted to be."

"A freak ? Torturing people ? But you're not a person you're..."

"What ? A monster ? A leech ? You're so stupid, I have feelings too. No matter what kind of person I am, I still have feelings. I still feel pain, anger, and sadness. I am a person. What do you think ? That all the embarrassing salty discharge you've seen coming out of my eyes were acting ?"

"I... But you killed people."

"Well it doesn't mean I'm proud of it !" she threw in the most hateful of manner, "I'm not like you ! As far as I can see, you're the only freak in this room because you're the only one not experimenting guilt. And that ? That's unfair."

There was so much loath in the glare she threw her, that Laura's dark thoughts went back haunting her mind. What if Carmilla was right ? What if …?

"I'm... I'm not a monster..." she tried again, but it sounded fake.

Even to her own ears.

* * *

"Hi Carmilla." Laura said as she entered the room.

The vampire ignored her.

"What are you doing ?" She asked, trying to be nice even when they both knew that torture was coming.

"Oh you now, looking at the stars and feeling to small in comparison." Carmilla spat. "Honestly, what a stupid question."

Stupid indeed. There was no window in the room.

* * *

"Is Carmilla ignoring you too ?" Had asked Laura one day

"No, why ?" Danny had answered, "It insults me a lot though."

"Oh..."

"Well if it's ignoring you, let it be. I mean, I don't think you'd enjoy being insulted."

Laura nodded but a question was burning her lips. She dropped it. "Do you think it's normal that I feel bad about what we're doing ? I mean, I was used seeing hungry monsters dying in seconds. It seemed to be what was right. But Carmilla ? I don't know, it's almost like..."

"It was human ?" Danny completed. And for a second, Laura believed she was about to agree. " Laura, I'm worried about you.", the tall redhead said instead. And what should have dropped butterflies in the pit of her stomach, started taunting her mind instead.

* * *

"Why are you making this face !" Mattie exclaimed, "God gracious, you don't even know this thing, and it told us it had killed before ! It's like them, only harder to kill. I mean, come on, you're even using human pronouns !"

And Laura stared at her feet because Mattie was right. She wasn't thinking straight anymore.

* * *

"I had a nice dream last night." Carmilla began and surprised to ear her low voice, Laura's eyes went wide."I dreamt that you all died, poisoning yourselves with your awful gas."

It hurt. It hurt in a way Laura didn't understand.

* * *

They had manage to produce a liquid solution of the poison.

So, under Dean's order, they had put Carmilla to sleep. They had entered the cell and transported her to another one, where they had tied her to a chair that seemed coming straight out of the dr Frankeinstein's lab. When Carmilla had woken up, JP had been the one injecting the poison in her veins, while every other scientist watched as Carmilla's eyes had gone wide in fear. Only Laura had shut hers when the vampire started to scream again.

"I hope you'll die this time." she whispered beneath her breath. And even though she wanted it to sound harsh, it only came out as shameful.

But Carmilla didn't die.

* * *

"So, any results today ?" Dean asked.

A loud silence answered her. But it was only fear, and being the only one experimenting guilt, Laura felt like if she was alone in a crowed room.

"Su-... Lafontaine ?" Dean ordered.

"Nothing. The specimen seems to resist anything. I don't understand, we even injected acid in its veins the other day."

"What a freak."

* * *

"I'm so thirsty..." Carmilla had whispered in her sleep.

And Laura's clenched jawline spoke volume. Carmilla wasn't a vampire in her mind anymore, Carmilla was a wounded creature that was just being tortured again and again. And the greater good seemed worthless when you were able to witness the results of your own cruelty.

"It's ok Carmilla, I'm giving you blood." Laura said as she hit the 'food' button, releasing red along the IV "A chance that the boss isn't there. I'd be fired otherwise. I mean, you're supposed to be fed only on tuesday."

But Carmilla didn't answer, still buried in her sleep. And Laura didn't even know if the joke was meant to be heard, or to reasure herself in a creepy kind of way.

Did Laura really wanted to continue those tortures ? She had had the chance to discuss with Carmilla. She had seen that the girl wasn't this bad. That she was far from being the merciless creature she had imagined every vampire were.

Had even a single one of those kills be a good choice ? Laura doubted it. Perhaps vampire were only a scary form of humans. Perhaps they weren't different from vegan people, only they drank the red out of other creatures.

* * *

"I have a deal to make." Laura said to Carmilla one day.

They were alone in the room.

"Yeah ? I didn't know I had anything worth trading now." Carmilla answered in a bitter voice.

"Let's say I don't give you the product today if you..." Laura started, waiting for Carmilla's eyes to light. They shot dagger instead.

"If I... ? Let me guess. You want me to put myself on display like some kind of zoo animal ? You want me to strip ? To sing ? To try and do a headstand ? Well sorry cupcake, but that would be a no. Besides, I'll still tied to this chair, there's not much I can do."

Laura shook her head. "Of course I don't want you to... strip or whatever."

"Well how would I know ?"

"I'm not..." Laura started, "Do you really think I'm this cruel ?" and seeing that the vampire's obvious silence stood for an affirmative answer, she sighed. "I just wanted to ask for some story of your life. I mean it must be interesting on a historical point of view."

"A story." Carmilla repeated with disgust. "What are you ? A toddler ? Didn't your mother give you enough of those ? Jesus."

"My mother died when I was 8."

"Are you expecting me to cry over your losses, creampuff ? Because I won't"

"She was killed by a vampire." Laura confessed, and thinking about it brought back years of melancholia and doubts. Would her mother have wished for revenge ? At any cost ? Laura didn't even remember what kind of person she was. Only trusting her father's words. Perhaps she had made the wrong choices all along.

"I wasn't the one asking for the story you know." Carmilla sharply threw.

"You're... so infuriating ! I'm telling you something... I don't know, deep ? And you're like you don't care ?"

"Well i'm not your therapist, am I ?"

"I fucking hate you. How do you expect me to buy your 'vampire are like human' stories when you're being such an... an..."

"infuriating vampire, you already said that. Besides I'm not selling your anything. Yet you're doubting, and that sounds like a guilty conscience to me. Are you finally realizing how incredibly dumb you are ?"

Dumb ? Laura clenched her fist.

"I'm doing this job, this really hard job that requires a level in science that very few people can master, and I'm not doing it for fun. I wanted to be a journalist but you know what ? Vampires happened. They ruined my life when this one killed my mother. That's why I chose science. I wanted to prevent any more murder from happening."

"How knightly of you. But big news buddy, you surely know that human themselves are murderers ? Oh wait, I forgot how low the criminality rate are these days. It's weird, really, to see how humans hate each other on a daily basis, rejecting each other for questions of sexuality, religion or skin color. And then, when something even more different appear, they all stop and stand united ? They suddenly accept all kinds of human, they tell you that it doesn't matter anymore if you're non-binary or a psychopath because you're a human fighting for the human side. And as a human you're loved and equal, for as long as there will be this threat. And do you know what happens when the threat is gone ? It goes back to normal. If you even did manage to kill every vampire on earth there would still be murders and unfair things happening. Because some humans are evil, just like some vampire are good people. These bad, bad _people_ that target vampire now, they would be the ones entering your house at night and killing your whole family while you sleep. Because they don't really need reason to kill. And you'd have been a scientist torturing humans and telling yourself that what you do is because they made you do it. But it's stupid. You are the one making the choices in your life. You didn't become this vampire-slayer because some random vampire killed your mom. You did because you chose to. Just like you're choosing to keep me inside these walls."

* * *

To the faithful guest : Haha ! I can see why you'd like this scene. I just realized that kissing scenes are very rare in Carmilla. Btw, sorry for the delay, I completely forgot to update. Anyway, I hope you'll enjoy this chapter as well.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4 : And so you listen to stories. Until you can't.

"Yeah LF, sorry I'm sick. I don't feel like I can come to work today." Laura said in an overplayed raspy voice, fake-coughing a little.

" _It's okay Laura, I know you're not doing it on purpose"_ The redhead kindly answered through the phone. Laura felt more shameful than she already was. _"We'll distribute your tasks. Is that okay for you ?"_

"It's perfect, thank you LaFontaine."

" _That's not a big deal anyway. With Carmilla still living, we don't have any other vampire to try anything on so, yeah, lots of research but not many places to be."_

"Yeah, I know. Call me if you need help to read my handwriting."

" _Laura your handwriting is so curvy and round that even a two year old could read it. Compared to Mattie's stylish handwriting and Danny's illegible scrawl? It's perfect."_

"I guess mine is actually easier to read than Danny's. Who would have known that someone this tall could write so small."

" _I know right ? But we're lucky 'cause JP writes like a typing machine. Ah, I have to go, my brains are ready to be dissected. Take care."_ they said before hanging out.

And Laura fell backward on her bed, dropping the phone on the sheets and clinging to her yellow pillow. What the... What was she doing ? Skipping work like a teenage girl skips school ? Jesus, so much for maturity.

But was it really childish after all ? Laura knew that she needed a break from the torture. She had started believing Carmilla, lately. I mean who wouldn't have ? The whole speech about cruelty was on point.

Laura sighed. Her stomach growled. "Shhh.", She said, "I'm not in the mood for cooking right know." But it seemed that Stomach didn't care at all. "I hate you." she exhaled, before rolling over and getting up from the bed.

The flat was flawless. A company accommodation for which she had been ecstatic at first, but hey, it's hard to feel at home when you don't have time to redecorate the whole thing. White walls, white dishes, white bathroom, the serious lack of pastel color always made Laura feel uneasy. Well at least she had a pink toothbrush and a yellow pillow.

She sighed as she dragged her feet down the hallway and stopped by the fridge. She looked inside and saw that it was as empty as ever. She sighed as she closed it, opening one of the closet instead randomly grabbing a box of cookies.

"That'll do." She said, as she opened the box and fetched two cookies in her mouth. "Yah. Fuff beffer"

Then she carried the cookie box out of the kitchen and crashed back on her bed, not even caring whether or not she'd put crumbs all over the place. This kind of thing wasn't really important anyway because Laura had a lot more to think about. Plus, if she accidentally rolled over the crumb and crushed it, causing a chocolate stain to appear over the sheet, it would be at least a good motivation to go and buy some pastel ones. Yeah, nobody wants to sleep in a bed that looks like someone had an accident in it.

"What is happening suddenly ? I've never taken so much risk." she complained, but the answer to this question was simple, and she knew it. She was confused. Or scared. Or maybe both at the same time.

Growing up, Laura had never doubted that she was a good person. She had chosen to do this particular job to be one. To save lives.

Save lives ? This was ridiculous.

She was just lying to herself and she knew it.

Doctors saved lives every day. Not scientist. Not the specific kind of scientist she was. Because this kind ? It was the revengeful kind. Carmilla was right about it. Laura knew she was just tricking herself into thinking she was a good person because she wanted to believe it. But she had chosen to kill instead of healing. Killing some creatures she knew nothing about, blindly thinking that their starved selves, with the grey skin and the black eyes, was their true appearances. That they were just monsters waiting for a moment to kill.

And were they, really ?

"So you're back, blonde one." Carmilla said. "I was worried, yesterday was your day."

"I was sick." Laura lied as she came closer to the glass wall separating them. The door was closed, there was no need to pretend, yet she didn't want to seem weak in front of the vampire. She pulled the liquid solution out of her pocket and put it on the floor, sitting next to it.

"What are you doing ? You're not IV injecting it to me ?" the vampire asked as she posed her sharp gaze on the tiny bottle. "Why ?"

"I still want to make the deal I asked for."

"You're tiring, Dimwit."

"Yeah Carm. I am. But you're always tired anyway and probably bored out of your mind."

"Good point. So, what historical story do you want to hear ?"

Laura blinked. "You agree ? Like... Like really ?"

"Gee, you're annoying. Of course I am. Which dumbass would say no to this easy way out ? I'm not a bloody masochist."

Laura's eyes opened wide in excitement and she smiled. Tons of questions were already rushing in her mind.

It soon appeared that Carmilla was good at telling stories. And so, every Wednesdays, as Laura entered the room, Carmilla asked for what the blonde wanted to hear about this time. And Carmilla told stories about the past. Things she had lived through and things she had missed. Switching between point of views as she always insisted on the fact that there were several sides to every story. And that she couldn't only tell her own, as she felt like this was cheating.

And so, Laura sat by the glass wall and listened to the stories. Asking questions when she needed answers. Yet, not pushing as far as asking for personal details. Nodding in agreement sometime, and sometime just getting lost in imagination. But there was also those moments where Laura stopped listening. Moments were her mind focused on details instead of stories. Witnessing every tiny change on Carmilla's expression and watching how the shadow of a smile sometime haunted her pale lips.

"Hi Carmilla" she greeted one day.

The vampire didn't answer.

" _I almost have it !"_ had exclaimed Mattie the evening before. _"I think I found why the leech is still alive !_ " and as thought Laura had been startled at first, she had felt like this wasn't a big deal in the end. Usually, LF was the one getting overexcited over false hopes and Laura had just ended being used to hear these. And so, it hadn't seemed like something serious.

Until she heard nothing but silence coming out of Carmilla's glass cell.

"Carmilla ?" she called. "Are you sleeping again, you lazy vamp ?" but remembering Mattie's words, Laura felt anxiety clenching her chest.

She came closer to the glass wall, searching for any sign of life with wide scared brown eyes. Scanning Carmilla's face in order to see if she seemed paler than usual.

" _I gave her the mixture today. I can tell you that it definitely had more effect than the previous poison."_

And there was no movement on the other side.

Laura started bouncing on glass, trying to wake Carmilla. Because she was probably just sleeping right ? Carmilla was always sleeping. Then she started screaming things, upset because of this stupid prank Carmilla was probably playing on her.

Until she realized that it was real. And she felt like someone had punched her in the guts.

 _Why are you doing this. She's a leech. She deserves this._ A small voice in the back of her mind said, and Laura pushed it away with a smash on the glass. "Please don't be dead, please !" _you're not even friends, she's not even human. You're being irrational again._ The voice whispered, but Laura didn't care as she furiously pushed the 'blood supplies' button, watching it as if ran along the IV and caused no reaction at all. _You should be happy. This vampire was confusing anyway._ Laura ran toward the cell's door. Because she had to do something. She had to. Carmilla couldn't just be dead. Carmilla couldn't. You couldn't just rip the life out of someone like that right ?

 _Of course you can, idiot. You killed all those vampire yourself after all._ Laura's shaking hand grabbed the door handle.

And as she opened it, something huge and dark pushed her out of the way.

And Laura passed out as her head smashed against the wall.

"I'm sorry" the cat whispered, as blood dripped from its mouth.

* * *

Hey... Sorry about the delay and thanks for all your nice reviews. Since the story is already finished and I'm very very busy I didn't find time (and motivation) to grammar check the whole thing. Anyway, enjoy :)


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